Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. ~ Hockey Gods to Mike Fisher

Some of you are probably wondering who the hell the guy is in the above photo. Frankly, I have no clue and assume it’s some guy named Mike Fisher because it’s the sixth image that came up in a Google image search under that name. Anyways, Don Brennan posted the line combinations on Off the Posts that the Senators used at practice this morning and will likely use in tomorrow night’s game versus New Jersey.

According to the lines, Cory Clouston has taken it upon himself to shake it up and nullify any production that the team can get from good ol’ number twelve. By placing Jason Spezza back on a line with Daniel Alfredsson and Milan Michalek, Fisher has been relegated to playing with Nick Foligno and (gulp) Jonathan Cheechoo.

If it’s of any consolation to Fisher, he was named to Mike Brophy’s second Canadian men’s Olympic team. Congratulations for this disctinct honour Mike. It’s almost as impressive as the fact that Mike Brophy justified his selection by stating that the Peterborough native is the perfect candidate to be the checking centre assigned to shutting down the opposition’s top scoring line as well as kill penalties.

Yes. I’d love to see Mike Fisher out there killing penalties and shutting down the Latvian B-team’s first line too.

Elliott Schadenfreude

If you haven’t heard Brian Elliott was named the NHL’s first star of the week. In Pascal Leclaire’s absence, Elliott had 4 wins and allowed 5 goals out of 115 shots this week. Almost as impressive as being named the League’s best statistical player for the week? Not being shit on by Bruce Garrioch once during this stretch of games. An Ottawa netminder first!

Pierre Lebrun on the Sens

Over at ESPN, there’s a good article by Lebrun detailing the Senators recent run of success. The article can best be summarized in Lebrun’s second last paragraph in which he states,

What strikes me about this edition of the Sens is the team concept is very strong. For a long time over the past decade, this team had oodles of talent, but I always believed it was top-heavy in terms of relying on certain players. Under Clouston, he’s given more people roles, and I think that’s a big reason the Sens have survived an injury-riddled season; the team’s success isn’t reliant on a handful of players like in the past. It’s truly a team.